Site News  |   Monitor Keywords  |   Monitor Archive  |   Organizer  |   Account Info  |

Protecting trade secrets during the design and configuration of an integrated circuit semiconductor design

Protecting trade secrets during the design and configuration of an integrated circuit semiconductor design description/claims

The invention relates generally to the field of integrated circuits (IC) design. More specifically the present invention relates to a system and method that protects trade secrets relating to the design process of an IC comprising third party intellectual property (IP).

Complex systems have always been hard to build and debug. However, the integrated circuit industry has developed rapidly over the last several years from producing VLSI devices that integrate a processor, memory and a few peripheral components onto a single chip to today's complex, high-performance systems on chip (SoC) that incorporate hundreds of intellectual property (IP) blocks. Because the economics of integrated circuit manufacture do not allow debugging by trial and error; the design must be ‘right first time’. As a result, SoC designers must minimize the risk of design error because any design iteration will be expensive in both mask charges and time to market.

Several types of computer-aided design (CAD) tools are available to aid in the design and fabrication of SoCs. Such computer-aided design tools can address both the synthesis and optimization processes. Synthesis is generally defined as an automatic method of converting a higher level of abstraction to a lower level of abstraction.

The synthesis process generally begins with the designer compiling a set of system specifications based on the desired functionality of the SoC. These specifications are then encoded in a hardware description language (HDL) such as VHDL. (VHSIC hardware description language) available from IEEE of New York, N.Y., or Verilog available from Cadence Design Systems, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. These specifications can be used to define a SoC in terms of the desired inputs and outputs, as well as desired functionality such as available memory or clock speed. From the HDL, the designer then generates a “netlist” including a list of gates and their interconnections, which is descriptive of the circuit modules in the SoC. Ultimately, the design is compiled and masks fabricated for producing the physical SoC.

While well suited for simpler devices and single components, the aforementioned synthesis process suffers several limitations, especially when applied to the design of complex SoCs. One effort to address these limitations is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,862,563 (the '563 reference) the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. The '563 reference attempts to configure one critical IP block, primarily a processor core, using an interactive computer program to manage the process and to improve efficiency of the SoC.

While the ability to optimize a customized processor core design in a SoC application is helpful in certain applications, there is still the requirement of back-fitting computer code such as operating system and application programs to execute on the customized processor core. Thus, regardless of the advantages of the prior art, what is needed is a synthesis process that minimizes the time and effort to design and manufacture a SoC with one or more processors whose specification is in part determined by the necessity to provide an expected level of performance for the computer code.

The present invention satisfies the aforementioned needs by providing an automated means of managing the complete configuration of an integrated circuit design (IC) and in particular a complex system on a chip (SoC).

A first aspect of the invention discloses an improved method for managing the design and configuration of a SoC. The method provides for the automated description of hardware components, such as a processor core, and software components, such as application and operating software, as well as the integration of the hardware and software components.

In a second aspect of the invention, a menu-driven computer program implements the design and configuration management method. In one exemplary embodiment, an interactive architecture module gathers workload information about the SoC and generates a merged HDL file descriptive of the design. In addition to generating the description file, the method provides for modification of the description file in response to an analysis of the operating system and application level software.

In a third aspect of the invention, an apparatus for generating, simulating, and/or synthesizing a SoC design using the aforementioned method is disclosed that allows a SoC designer to remotely interact with the program during the design, simulation, and/or synthesis processes.

In a fourth aspect of the invention, a SoC design depicted in a hardware description language and synthesized using the aforementioned method of the invention is disclosed.

In a fifth aspect of the invention, an IC fabricated using the aforementioned synthesized design is disclosed. In one exemplary embodiment, the IC comprises a SoC with one or more processors.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an integrated circuit design and synthesis method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system for developing a description file of an integrated circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a graphical user interface for an embodiment of the mechanism of FIG. 2 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a graphical user interface and database structure for an embodiment of the mechanism of FIG. 2 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

• What Is a Patent?
• What Is a Trademark or Servicemark?
• What Is a Copyright?
• Patent Laws